Category: decline and fall

Hot and humid today, because Houston. Summer. Global warmening !11!!11 Yeah, the first two, not so much the third. It did get pretty dang hot in the afternoon, but there was a cool breeze if you were soaked to the skin, and in the shade. Had to sit in the air conditioned truck for a bit in the afternoon.

Got the widowmaker down and it was BIG. Stuff looks small up there in the tree…. but this would pulverize you if it hit you. There were some things that might have raised an eyebrow, but I went slow, was considering all the choices and likely reactions, and actually got a harness and lifeline on for the bit standing on the ladder with the polesaw.

And I managed to wear out the polesaw. The drive sprocket got eaten by the chain. It’s a cheap part but I won’t get it for 3-5 days. Good thing I finished most of the cutting and could use the regular chainsaw for the rest.

I thought about just buying a whole new one as a backup, but they are $125! I’ll wait for my mojo to bring another to the auctions. Should be lots coming up.

Drove out of town to get propane for the honda gennie. We’re SUPPOSED to get power restored to my address according to Centerpoint but I’ll believe it when I’m basking in the A/c.

Which might be earlier if I can get the other gennie running.

Today is more cleanup, work on the gennies, and see if the power comes on. Probably get a can of red beans and rice ready to go with the kielbasa sausage for dinner… so far I’ve been eating leftovers for dinner, but I finished most of them yesterday.

Still not into any “emergency” food. It’s only been a couple of days really. And with the cleanup to do, I’ve been getting up, working, eating, showering, and heading to bed. Not much spare time.

Disasters are pretty busy times. I know there are preppers who can’t wait for their normal lives to end, who think they will finally be able to read books all day, and get to all those projects they’ve put off. Sorry NO. It doesn’t work that way. All the modern conveniences that fill our homes and lives are what gave anyone other than royalty “free time”. If you don’t have human servants to do the work, better have some mechanical servants. Our homes are filled with robotic wonders to heat water, clean dishes and clothes, cook meals, and provide for our needs. Take those away and your day fills up pretty quickly.

Stacks can help you repair stuff when it breaks, two is one and one is none is true. I’ve done it several times already and it’s only been a couple of days. Stacks will feed you with handy prepared foodstuffs. Stacks will let you cook and clean easily. Stacks will easy your problems and give you options. So what are you waiting for?? Stack.

nick

Gonna be another warm one. It was in the 90s yesterday and in the sun, I felt every degree. Had to pause several times to cool off, and I was working at a “deliberate” pace.

Cut up and stacked my tree debris. That took from 10ish to 4ish. THen I did the same at my rent house. Took until about 730ish. Came home and tried to help the neighbor get their borrowed but very new looking gennie running.

Bad gas, varnish in the float bowl, and ultimately a float needle that wouldn’t seal. Told them to order a new carb. It’s not enough to drain the tank, you have to drain the float bowl too, and probably coat the aluminium with vaseline or something similar. Leave the fuel hose disconnected, and the petcock open. That MIGHT let any water that condenses in your tank drain away, instead of ruining your float bowl. Keeping the gennie dry and away from temperature swings will probably help too.

Today will be figuring out how to get the ‘widow maker’ branches down out of the big tree in the front yard. There are a few massive branches among the smaller stuff. Those have to come down.

We were supposed to have power back yesterday, but they were mistaken as we didn’t. That is encouraging though that it might not be 2 weeks or 2 months. I talked to the Centerpoint survey guys driving around and they said it was 20 transmission towers that were blown over. IDK how they are going to fix that in 5 days but that’s what the president of Centerpoint said… although I bet there were some qualification words used.

I’m wiped out. It’s dripping humid, and it’s really hot in the sun. Bad combo. And all my cool vests are at the BOL…

I’ll just have to be careful, I guess.

As far as prepping notes, if this cheap amazon chinese carb works, I’m ordering a spare. Totally worth it for $15. And I’m going to figure out why the propane conversion kit is so sensitive to load and adjustment. Dunno if I’ll get to solar, hope not, but if things go badly…

Stack. And stack some more.

nick

Raining wet and flooded. I’m making assumptions as I’m writing this much earlier than I normally do. Yesterday alternated heavy rain, light rain, rain, and small periods of not rain. Lake came up a good 8 inches over the course of the day.

So I watched the slowmo flood yesterday, unloaded my truck, and decided I’d better stay up here and manage the aftermath. And there will be some, as the dockhouse started to get wet around 830pm. Tile floor, and plywood paneling instead of drywall should help with the eventual drying out. Dunno if that will start today, or if I’m here at the lake for this week.

I didn’t want to take a chance on a power outage keeping me from posting, with all the lightning we started to get last night, so this isn’t as timely as normal. If I don’t update in the morning, there’s probably a power issue up here, unless the Ruskies EMP’d us, in which case I’m talking to myself anyway…

Either more rain and flooding today, or I start cleanup.

Fun times. Didn’t have 100 yr flood on my card for this year. And didn’t have it for the BOL at all. I got that wrong.

So I deal with it, because that’s what I do.

Fortunately I already have a big dehumidifier here, and fans, and portable heat. And as a Houstonian, this won’t be my first flood.

Prepping. It’s not just what’s for breakfast.

Stack the stuff you need.

nick

Warm and moist. Light rain is possible. Partly sunny is likely. Which is how yesterday went. The very light rain was only in small areas of town and was brief. If I hadn’t been driving through it, I probably wouldn’t have known.

Did my pickup, then headed to my client’s house to install the new gear. Unfortunately the gear wasn’t actually there, so I ended up doing a couple of maintenance things. The Bluray player was locked up, probably from the same event that fried the receiver, but it recovered with a hard power cycle. It wasn’t a very productive time, but I get paid anyway. Of course the gear was delivered about an hour after I left.

Today I have my meeting for my non-prepping hobby, and no, special clothing is not required. We are having our quarterly swap fest/sale and I’ve got some stuff to sell. After that, I’ll switch trucks and head to my client’s house. I should be able to swap in the new gear, confirm it’s working, and be on my way in about an hour. I’ll head to the BOL from there, and maybe get in before dark.

Once there, I’ve got a pickup load to un-load, and I need to either figure out how to get my mower deck installed on the backup lawn tractor, or I need to rebuild the deck that came with it and get THAT re-installed on the tractor. It’s got a hole in the deck which is not great (and was the main reason it got retired), but I can at least mow with it until I either get the other deck to fit, or weld the hole closed. It’s always something…

And I’ll be headed home earlier than normal on Sunday so as to spend at least a bit of time with my lovely bride, and mother of my lovely children on Mother’s Day. It’ll be lovely.

Stack some good times. They will help during the bad times.

nick